Outline

Objective: Recent studies demonstrated that the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism influences the recovery of brain injury and that relationship exists between the occurrence (Alzheimer disease) and outcome of patients with neurological diseases (eg. subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, intracerebral hemorrhage, spinal cord injury) and the possession of the e4 allele. The aim of this study was to test if there is an increased risk for the development of myelopathy in patients with homo- or heterozygous e4 genotype.

Methods: 91 consecutive patients with chronic spinal cord compression due to tumor or degenerative disease of the spine were included in this study (59 men; 32 women). The age ranged from 21 to 86 years. The mean age was 58,1Â±14,3 years. Patient characteristics and radiographic variables were recorded prospectively. APOE genotyping was carried out by isolation of DNA from venous blood samples. APOE genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction enzyme digestion and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of digested fragments. Univariate association between categorical variables was tested using the chi square test. A backward stepwise method was used to construct a multivariate logistic regression model in relation to the occurrence of myelopathy as the dependent variable.